The Australian Logistics Council lodged this submission with the National Transport Commission in response to the Forward-Looking Cost Base for Heavy Vehicle Charges Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement. The submission noted that the current PAYGO framework, developed in 2007, no longer reflects the way Australia’s freight task operates, including changing vehicle technologies, more efficient fleets, emerging zero-emission heavy vehicles and increasing pressure on road infrastructure. It identified fairness, transparency, productivity, mode neutrality, administrative simplicity, support for small operators and alignment with national freight and decarbonisation objectives as core principles for reform. The submission supported moving toward a Forward-Looking Cost Base as a practical step away from retrospective expenditure-based charging, while making clear that the proposed model remains a national average charge and does not yet link charges to the roads used, the service quality received, or the infrastructure outcomes delivered. It also called for stronger reporting, clearer accountability and further reform, including better use of data, distance-based charging and stronger alignment between road funding, freight productivity, supply chain resilience and long-term network efficiency.